215. Trying To Improve

And as Izumi guessed. When they followed Tatsugorō out of the restaurant, they arrived in an unfamiliar place. They looked back as the door closed which then disappeared from their sight. When Izumi and the others looked around, trees with a mountain view behind them could be seen.

"Where is this?"

Izumi asked while looking at the vast mountains surrounded by a luxuriant, dense forest rich in biodiversity. From where Izumi was now it seemed like 1000 meters above seawater.

Tatsugorō answered.

"This is the land of mountains in the western continent."

Izumi scratched his hair and thought.

"I also know that this is a land of mountains. I just want to know the name of this area. Well, never mind."

After he thought for a while, Izumi said.

"Tatsugorō-san, what kind of training have you been doing till now?"

Tatsugorō pointed to the mountain peak that was filled with fog. Then he said.

"Up there, the air is so thin, the fog is also very thick. Ever since I was young, I've been training there. Breathing exercises, improving instincts, and all sorts of things. With the dense fog, I just rely on my instincts to survive because there used to be lots of monsters living there."

Hearing Tatsugorō's explanation, Izumi became interested. Practicing in thin-air locations could increase his fighting skill. This might help Izumi to improve his combat prowess.

Izumi could only think that he was planning to come to this world on the summer holiday next week. The important thing now was to try to fight against Tatsugorō using only his swordsmanship and physical strength. He wanted to know how strong he was now just by using his sword art while fighting against the other martial artist. After all, he always relied on his magic, Haki, or his Devil Fruit.

And since Izumi could already use his Devil Fruit perfectly, he could control his Devil Fruit power whether to activate or deactivate his intangible state. If Izumi continued to use Logia-type Devil Fruit's unique power, he would have a hard time growing up.

It didn't take long for them to arrive at an open field in the middle of the forest. At that moment, Tabane, Rori, Karin, and Hiiro retreated away from Izumi and Tatsugorō who seemed to be starting their duel.

Before Izumi could take the sword from the storage space, Tatsugorō threw one of his katana at Izumi.

"Since you don't have a weapon, use mine!"

Izumi wanted to refute it, but he remained silent and accepted the katana that Tatsugorō threw at him.

Izumi took a stance and took a deep breath. He had already seen Tatsugorō's stance who was ready to fight.

Izumi tightened his grip and swiftly moved in front of Tatsugorō. He swung forward with a katana in his hand.

Tatsugorō reacted by gripping the handle of his sword in the sheath and positioning his feet to balance his stance. Tatsugorō drew his sword quickly and smoothly from its sheath.

*Clank*

Izumi's attack was blocked. But, Tatsugorō was slightly dragged backward by the impact of Izumi's attack.

"The hell. This kid is so strong!" Tatsugorō said secretly.

At that moment, Izumi spun his body and appeared beside Tatsugorō with a following attack.

*clank* *clank* *clank* *clank*

Fast and swift sword slashes performed by Izumi couldn't break Tatsugorō's defense at all. As Izumi expected, Tatsugorō is a peak-level swordsman in his world after all.

Izumi jumped back and took a distance, and so did Tatsugorō. Tatsugorō smiled and said.

"Your swordsmanship is fast, but lacks rhythm, it's too messy."

"Then, please be serious as if you wanted to kill me!" Izumi replied as he positioned the katana in front of him.

"You can die, you know!" Tatsugorō warned. However, Izumi smirked instead of being afraid.

"No problem! All I want is to improve my sword skills, but so far, I've only been fighting someone who doesn't have any sword skills, until I met you."

"Alright, I'll get serious. Get ready!"

Suddenly, Tatsugorō's aura changed and overflowed. His killing intent was really dangerous because it seemed that many enemies had been beheaded by his katana. But Izumi couldn't be intimidated because he had felt a more dangerous killing intent before.

Tatsugorō suddenly disappeared from his place and appeared beside Izumi.

"That's fast!" Izumi exclaimed.

Since Izumi only used his sword skill and raw strength only, Tatsugorō obviously looked superior.

*screech*

Izumi stopped Tatsugorō's attack by twisting the katana he was holding which made the attack miss the vital point even though Izumi was scratched as well.

Not stopping there, Tatsugorō swung his sword upward.

*slash*

Luckily Izumi somersaulted backward to avoid it. Otherwise, his right hand could be cut off. However, due to the speed of Tatsugorō's attack, scratches from his katana were unavoidable.

Izumi looked at the wound caused by Tatsugorō's attack. So astonishingly, the bleeding stopped, and the first scratch from Tatsugorō's attack started to heal.

"Is this the self-heal ability due to the Ghoul's cells?"

Not only Izumi, but Tatsugorō also realized that his body could heal on its own when he saw him.

The battle continued with Tatsugorō taking the initiative to attack. The start of their fight was a bit unequal and Izumi was at a disadvantage due to his inexperience.

But little by little, Izumi began to learn moves from Tatsugorō. Izumi wanted to try using Tatsugorō's moves and try to combine and match with his style, unfortunately, he couldn't because it seemed more difficult than he imagined.

Precisely because Izumi was trying out new moves it was easy for Tatsugorō to read those moves and counterattack him.

His hand was stabbed. Just as he tried to kick Tatsugorō. Tatsugorō pulled out his katana and placed his katana around Izumi's neck.

Izumi raised both his hands and took off the katana which then plunged into the ground. Blood was also dripping from the wound.

"If you didn't change your attack pattern which made you seem amateurish, you could definitely keep up with me. Did you want to try using a new technique?"

"Well, I just wanted to steal your moves and make them fit my fighting style."

"Hahaha. How interesting. It's the first time someone has thought like that when fighting against me. Anyway, your wound…"

Tatsugorō pointed at Izumi's hand that had been stabbed earlier. Izumi just shook his head.

"No problem. A wound like this will heal in no time."

He showed his wound which was starting to heal on its own. This was the first time Tatsugorō had seen someone who could heal himself without using any spells. Maybe there is something special about Izumi's body that made him have such an ability. Tatsugorō didn't ask anything because it might be Izumi's secret.

It was getting dark, so Izumi told Tatsugorō to return to his world. He also said that he would ask Tatsugorō to take him to his training ground next week. He was still not satisfied with his current strength, so he wanted to improve.

Before they returned, Hiiro said something shocking and made Izumi want to confirm it.

"Eh, you don't want to go back?"

"Seeing that old man's sword skills, I want to improve my swordsmanship."

Hiiro realized, even though his magic was great, even his physical strength could already be said to be a monster in Edea. However, his fighting technique was still amateurish. He was even helpless when his enemies used anti-magic. That was why he wanted to improve his fighting skills and techniques after seeing Tatsugorō's iaido.

"Okay. Then what about you three?" Izumi turned to Rori, Karin, and Tabane.

"Of course, I will return to your house."

"Me too, I haven't had time to introduce myself to your mother."

"I want to try big brother's cake."

Rori, Tabane, and Karin answered him one by one which made him cover his face with his palm. He felt that these two women might be troublesome. Not might be, but it would definitely be troublesome.

"Fine then. But, you should buy that item for Karin as well!" What Izumi meant was an Item called a transmigration card which could be used to send a person to another world even if that person wasn't a member of the chat group.

Tabane smugly replied.

"No worries. I already bought some for Karin-chan."

Hearing what Tabane said, Izumi said to himself. "She even prepared everything before coming to my world. Could it be that she really intends not to return to her world for a while?"

Izumi turned to everyone.

"Fine. Then, let's go back!"

Using the items they bought from the Dimensional Shop, the four of them disappeared and left Hiiro in the land of the mountains.